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Ten Years of Not Learning Spanish
You can’t say that I didn’t try!
I wish I had taken Spanish in High School.
I had a little French in 5th grade but recall none of it. I started Latin in 7th and went on with four more years of that. I do not regret it — I suppose it helped my vocabulary, but so would a dictionary.
Our daughters took multiple languages — French, Spanish, Russian, and German. One of them even majored in Spanish. Their textbooks littered our house. I would pick the books up now and then, but I couldn’t summon the energy to get into it. Too hard, I was too old, and it would be too much work.
But my being monolingual nagged at me.
Rosetta Stone
Around 2010 Rosetta Stone ads were regularly on TV and all over the Internet. I bought their Latin American Spanish, Levels 1–3 for a ridiculous amount of money and dove in. Part of the reason it was expensive was that it included a decent quality USB headset and microphone. The pile of media was impressive, and I was initially quite impressed.
That didn’t last long. I have no current knowledge of Rosetta Stone, but back then, it was all immersion-based. There was no English. It showed me pictures, written text, and I heard someone speaking. Sometimes I had to click on a matching image…
